A Final Say referendum on EU membership held under a Labour government would be legally-binding and its outcome would be implemented immediately, Jeremy Corbyn has declared.
The move aims to head off Brexiteer claims that a confirmatory vote held next year would lead to endless re-runs of the 2016 referendum, which was advisory.
And it counters Boris Johnson’s central charge that Labour would consign the country to years of “dither and delay” over the EU, while Tories would “get Brexit done” – something Mr Corbyn denounced as “a fraud on the British people”.
As expected, Labour’s manifesto commits the party to renegotiating a Brexit deal and striking an agreement on future relations with the EU within three months of taking power and staging a public vote by June 2020.
The document rules out a no-deal Brexit if Labour wins the 12 December election and warns that a majority Tory government would “pose a renewed threat of the UK crashing out with no deal”.
Despite being challenged nine times by Mr Johnson in Tuesday’s TV debate to state whether he would campaign for Leave or Remain, Mr Corbyn stuck to his refusal to take sides.
He dismissed suggestions that his position on Brexit made him look “a joke” telling the manifesto launch in Birmingham: “What I’m saying is, let’s get together on this and let the British people have the Final Say. Our government will carry it out whatever the result of that vote is.”
Labour’s preferred Brexit option of a customs union and close single market arrangement could be negotiated swiftly and approved by public vote within months, while Mr Johnson’s free trade deals with the EU and US would require negotiations dragging on for many years, he said.
To applause, Mr Corbyn said: “If you watched the debate you’ll have heard Boris Johnson claim he’ll get Brexit done, over and over again.
“That claim is a fraud on the British people.
“His sell-out deal will be just the beginning of years of drawn-out, bogged-down negotiations and broken promises.
“We’ll secure a sensible deal that protects manufacturing and the Good Friday Agreement, and then put it to a public vote alongside the option of remaining in the EU.
“So if you want to leave without trashing our economy or selling out our NHS, you’ll be able to vote for it. If you want to remain, you’ll be able to vote for that.
“ Let’s take this out of the hands of politicians and give the British people the final say.”
The Labour manifesto denounces Mr Johnson’s deal as “even worse than Theresa May’s” warning: “It would leave the UK £70 billion worse off by 2029; it would give the green light to deregulation undermining UK manufacturing; and it would leave our NHS at the mercy of a trade deal with Donald Trump”.
But Conservative minister Brandon Lewis said: “The publication of Labour’s manifesto has just confirmed what we already knew, Jeremy Corbyn simply doesn’t have a plan for Brexit. And without a plan to get Brexit done he has no credibility on anything else.
“Corbyn’s Labour can’t win a majority, so his only chance of getting into power is to do a deal with Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP. That would mean that 2020 would be lost to the chaos of another two referendums – one on Brexit and another on Scottish independence.”
